{FECA Vision Choir} Report 2

Report 2
When we landed early this morning at Bangalore airport, the pilot reported the temperature to be 21 Celsius or 70 degrees Fahrenheit. What wonderful weather we were blessed with. Even at noon, it was pleasant with temperature in the mid seventies. We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and met Moshi (Moses), who Tim had hired as his business administrator in India, a recent college graduate (but a non-singer) with a business degree. We spent the afternoon doing our devotions, going over the plans for this week, reading and signing our giving up our rights during the mission trip, and doing some rehearsal with Joanne and Nancy, who joined us about four PM when she got out of school. Kloe passed out our Vision T-shirts, designed by Natalie Harmon, and worked on the crafts for VBS which will start tomorrow for three days.

We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and went to bed early.

Thursday, 6/29
PTL, many of us slept well last night as we begin our first day of ministry here after recovering from the long flight and 12-1/2 hour change in time. We left our hotel at 8:10 and arrived at New Home, an orphanage run by Reaching Hand, the social outreach ministry of New Life Fellowship. This is a new facility partially completed a few months ago with 49 children living here. The older 30 are attending two schools and we taught VBS to the 19 younger children. The plan when completed is to have two buildings, each five stories high able to house 500 children here, and a kitchen and a large dining room. We met Pastor Samuel here, whose shared that his first priority is preaching and church planting, the second is children's ministry. The third is social concern. The lowest priority is business and only because its profits can support his ministries. Since Indian law prohibits preaching the Gospel directly, he preaches by his life and loving the children. Pastor Samuel comes from a nominal Christian family, but became a believer in 1973, and went to Bible school. After some struggle with his faith, he met a man with Operation Mobilization which deepened his faith. After getting married, he felt the call to church plant and left OM and joined New Life (started on Mumbai). In 1982, he started New Life in Bangalore, with some miraculous converts (like a gangster). He started a business on the side to support himself. Today, there are 135 churches in Karnataka Province so the Lord has provided. God also gave him a heart for orphans. Today, Pastor Samuel is no longer pastoring any church, having passed on the ministry to other pastors. Mrs. Samuel also shared her testimony, how at the age of 12, desperate to find meaning in her life with her mother on the verge of death, God called her in the night much like Samuel in the Old Testament. She felt the Lord told her to go to pray for her dying mother. She had been bed-ridden, drinking only a sip of water everyday, and after prayer, her mother sat up for the first time in 45 days. The next morning happened to be Sunday, and the whole family was able to walk several kilometers to Sunday service, astounding their neighbors and church members. Since that day she has committed to serving the Lord.

We ate lunch with the children at the orphanage, cooked by Mrs. Samuel, who came today just to meet our team and cook for us, rice and curry chicken. But before lunch, we sang "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" to the staff and children. We then spent the last few minutes singing VBS songs the kids and got back on the bus to return to the CEO Centre, where we did our daily devotions and debrief what we saw at the orphanage this morning,

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